Brief Communication: Altered Amino Acid Concentrations Accompanying Suppression of Malignancy of Mouse Melanoma Cells by 5-Bromodeoxyuridine

Abstract

Amino acid pool differences were found between highly tumorigenic cultured mouse melanoma cells and these cells after suppression of tumorigenicity and pigmentation by chronic growth with 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BUDR, 1 µg/ml). The changed phenotype of the BUDR grown cells was accompanied by significant increases in the intracellular free amino acid concentrations/U cell protein for 10 of 13 amino acids quantitated. The concentrations of proline and glu (glutamine+glutamate) were significantly lower in the malignant cells, whether calculated per cell or per U cell protein. The molar percentage of 5 amino acids in the protein of BUDR-treated cells differed significantly from that of untreated melanoma cells. These observations support other investigations which suggest that altered amino acid metabolism is a feature characteristic of malignant cells